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Thursday, June 30, 2016

Junior Bulls will not have to pay any membership fee for the coming season.

This from Hereford FC:

Following the huge success of the Junior Bulls’s last season,
Hereford FC and Junior Bulls are pleased to announce that free
membership will continue for another season!Junior Bull organisers have been busy planning new events and
improving on old ones ready for the new season and are pleased to reveal
that half time events will be held at all home games (weather
permitting).Activities will include penalties, 5-a-sides and ball skill
competitions, and thanks to the kind sponsorship from Tesco Hereford
everyone taking part in these half time events will receive a medal and
certificate.The Guard of Honour will also be organised by the Junior Bulls for
the coming season, with schools and local groups set to be invited by
the Junior Bulls’s as part of a new initiative set to help build links
with local schools and youth groups around the County and beyond.The Junior Bulls will also hold a series of family events, kicking off with a Family Quiz Night towards the start of the season.After a successful Junior Bull trip to Wembley, which saw three
Junior Bull Family coaches travel to the FA Vase Final, the JBs are also
planning to organise more trips to selected away games this season.Junior Bull members will receive the following as part of their FREE membership!A free gift, unique to Junior Bull members.
Membership Card
10% discount on UITC Courses.
JB members matchday ticket £1
Opportunity to take part in matchday activitiesAll existing members will automatically have their membership renewed.New memberships will be accepted soon – watch this space for more info!If anyone would like more information please email juniorbulls@herefordfc.co.uk

UITC
confirms that Caroline Preedy, appointed onto the Board of Trustees, will have
responsibility for Fundraising to complement the existing work of Commercial
Manager Mick Loader in sourcing additional income streams for the organisation.

We also announce that Justin Ratcliffe has decided to step down owing to
increasing professional commitments.

Commenting on this, Nick Vaughan said: "We are extremely sad to lose
Justin as he did an absolutely unbelievable job for UITC in the past year. We
had to grab "the bull by the horns" when we all came on board last
year to get UITC stabilised. He led from the front on much of this and I place
on record my sincere thanks for his very significant contribution - which sees
us go into the 2016/17 season with such strong foundations."

A new book entitled Roots To The 92 has recently been published. Written by Andrew Leeder, it's all about ground-hopping.

He told BN how he came to write the book.

I first
got interested in football just before the 1970 FA Cup final. I was then aged
seven, and at school one day the local bully was doing his rounds of the
playground asking whether you supported Chelsea or Leeds. When he found me I
was clued up to what he was doing and answered "Chelsea" - satisfied
with this response he moved on, inflicting a chinese burn on anyone who
foolishly answered "Leeds". But this sparked a hitherto untapped interest
- eager to find out more my bedroom wall was soon covered with pictures of the
Chelsea squad.

Recognising this new hobby, the following season my Dad decided it was time to
take me to a match. However, he decided that my introduction should take place
at local Roots Hall, the home of Southend United, rather than at the more
glamourous Stamford Bridge. But once in I was hooked and it has been that way
ever since.

My footie traveling really took off when I was at university in Plymouth in the
early 80's. It was at this time that I made what is still to date my only visit
to Edgar Street. It was an occasion I would never forget, but not for the
sublime football on offer. Indeed, many years later when BBC 5 Live ran a
competition asking for FA Cup football stories of no longer than 300 words I
decided to enter with an overview of my trip to Hereford. It went as follows:

‘A Southend fan washed up in
Plymouth in 1981, our ball had come out of the hat after Hereford’s. So off I
went to Edgar Street, once host to a glorious 70’s FA Cup parka pitch invasion,
for a nice relaxing day trip and the start of our annual forlorn assault on
Wembley. I left my digs at 6.30 am for the seven mile cycle ride to the train
station. One mile in I had a puncture, ran back home to dump the bike, and then
hitched a lift to Plymouth centre. Train caught just in time, three changes and
five hours later I was in Hereford. We lost 3-1. About turn for the train ride
back, but British Rail was in meltdown. Changes this time had to be made at
Newport, Bristol Parkway, Bristol Temple Meads, Taunton, Exeter St David’s and
Newton Abbot, arriving back in Plymouth around 1.00 am. It was peeing down (I
mean, really peeing down, Plymouth style), the last bus had gone, no stranger
wanted to give a drenched inadequately clothed young adult a lift, and so I
walked. An hour or so later, about one mile away from the end, a cop car pulled
up and asked where I had been. I told them my story and submitted a soggy
programme as Exhibit A. They took the piss, told me that they were on the
look-out for a peeping tom but believed my unique alibi and desire just to get
home rather than peep at Tom or anyone, declined to give me a lift up the steep
hill before me, suggested I support a better team, and sped off laughing. I eventually
got back some 20 hours after leaving. Never mind, there’s always next year I
thought.’

At
the time Edgar Street was early on in my 92 quest and it took me a just over a
further three decades to get there, completing it all at Bloomfield Road in
April 2016. Towards the end of completing the 92 I had decided to tick another
one off the bucket list and write a book, and opted to make the 92 my subject.
Now published, it is something I am very proud of - it is not a series of match
reports, I think that would be a bit dull. Instead it is a tale of what it was
like to be there, written in a dry humour fashion which I hope will entertain
the football fan whoever they support. It is certainly not a Southend-centric
book - much of my ground-hopping was undertaken with fans of other teams.

The book can be purchased from Amazon (in paperback or kindle format) or from
the publisher Completely Novel (paperback only) - just type 'Roots To The 92'
in to the site search box. Alternatively I have set up a website - www.rootstothe92.co.uk
- where you can learn more about the book, see a video picture montage, and
access the 'buy' links.

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